BRK.A drifted 0.4% lower on the week to $752,091, and the most interesting subplot is not in the price — it's in the ownership register, where Warren Buffett quietly reduced his stake by 8,000 shares, even as his CFO stepped in to buy two shares in August.
The ownership picture carries more nuance than a single headline allows. Buffett remains by far the dominant holder at 13.2% of shares — 188,290 shares, as last reported in July. The reduction of 8,000 shares is notable in absolute dollar terms but tiny relative to his position. More telling is the CFO's open-market purchase of two Class A shares in August at prices around $765,000 apiece. That's a discretionary buy at the top of the stock's recent range. The Gates Foundation Trust, a long-standing institutional holder, trimmed 1,573 shares in the quarter ending June 30, continuing a pattern of gradual reduction. The passive index giants — Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street — all added modestly, providing a steady institutional floor beneath the stock.
Short interest is not the story here. The estimated short position is around 148 Class A-equivalent shares, and availability in the borrow market is effectively unlimited — the pool of shares available to lend dwarfs the amount actually borrowed by an enormous margin. Borrow cost ticked up to 0.59% from lows near 0.05% in August, but at that absolute level it remains trivially cheap to short. The ORTEX short score of 26.3 ranks in the 90th percentile for low short pressure across the universe, confirming this is one of the least shorted large-cap stocks in the market. The BRK.B note published August 26 flagged that the short exit in the B-shares was essentially complete; that same dynamic holds for the A-shares, where bears have been absent all summer.
The analyst picture is split, and the gap is wide. UBS's Brian Meredith carries a Buy rating with a target raised to $906,011 in August — roughly 20% above current levels. At the other end, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods has an Underperform rating with a $735,000 target, which sits just below where the stock is trading now. The consensus mean target of around $799,503 implies modest upside of roughly 6% from current levels. Valuation sits at 22.4x trailing earnings and 1.4x book — neither cheap nor expensive for a business of this complexity. The EPS momentum factor is a standout: ORTEX ranks BRK.A in the 94th percentile on 30-day EPS momentum and the 93rd percentile on EPS surprise, reflecting a consistent record of beating estimates. The EPS 12-month forward year-on-year growth factor, at just the 2nd percentile, is the mirror image — forward estimates are being pulled by base-period distortions rather than any operational concern.
The August earnings print provides recent context on how the stock reacts to quarterly releases. The Q2 report on August 8 produced a 1.8% gain on the day before fading 4.2% over the following week. The prior event in May saw a 1.1% decline on the day with a modest five-day recovery. The pattern suggests the market tends to take profits or reposition in the week after results rather than holding the initial post-print move. The next earnings event is scheduled for November 6.
The key thing to watch into Q3 is whether Buffett's gradual stake reduction — now on the record for the second consecutive quarter — continues at the November 13F disclosure, and whether the CFO buying programme represents a deliberate offset or coincidence.
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